Freelance Journalist, Blogger, Avid Enthusiast

Guitar's Got You Stumped?

The big news that folks have been paying attention to the other day from Apple’s presentation at the Macworld Expo was the announcement that iTunes will now offer DRM-Free tracks to download off their website. Another one of the interesting features presented by Apple for the new year is the new edition of iLife’s GarageBand. Although GarageBand contains the simplest music recording actions and processing of any computer recording programs – that way it’s more accessible to the average person – it’s capabilities have become more sophisticated, as seen from the 2009 updates.

Perhaps most interesting are the basic lessons for guitar and piano available via video. Once you get the basics down, you can move to the artist lessons, where well-known musicians teach you how to play their well-known songs. You can download individual artist lessons for a just under $5 as they become available. So far, there are only a handful of artist lesson previews available through the website, including one from this fellow:

Patrick Stump for GarageBand

Yep, Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy. And he’s teaching their newest single, “I Don’t Care,” which you can preview on the iLife site. An emo artist alongside the likes of Sting, Norah Jones, and Sarah McLachlan as part of the advertising muscle for one of the trendiest and most-popular companies in America in recent year. Is this a sign that, despite the enigma surrounding the genre with the rioting and calls of cultism and outright banning, that emo is not only accepted but promoted to the majority of Americans as a healthy part and product of our greater popular culture? Too soon to tell, but it’s easy to see that they are simply appealing to the market, as Fall Out Boy are one of the best-selling bands in the world. No matter what, you’ve got to appreciate this quote from the GarageBand website:

“Have Sting teach you how to play ‘Roxanne,’ Colbie Caillat teach you how to play ‘Bubbly,’ Fall Out Boy teach you how to play ‘I Don’t Care,’ and many more.”

Another quote to back up the theory that Patrick Stump is the most invisible frontman in any popular band (sorry, Stillwater isn’t real).

To round it all out, I know I’m not the first person to post this (and hopefully not the last), but kudos to The Onion‘s video department for dreaming up this great Apple gadget. Too bad they didn’t debut this baby at the Expo: